


The Iron Queen of Moon 13  [fanmix + ficlets]

by speccygeekgrrl



Category: Mystery Science Theater 3000
Genre: Fan Soundtracks, Fanmix, Ficlets, Gen, Kinga is a mess, and here are some of the reasons why
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-11
Updated: 2017-07-11
Packaged: 2018-11-30 11:42:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11462877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/speccygeekgrrl/pseuds/speccygeekgrrl
Summary: A fanmix for Kinga, and a series of ficlets loosely based on the songs therein contained.





	The Iron Queen of Moon 13  [fanmix + ficlets]

**Author's Note:**

> I love making fanmixes. Absolutely love it. I had an excessively long playlist put together with all my songs that help me write fic, but I decided to break it down into a couple of smaller, more cohesive mixes. First up is Kinga's mix. Each song has lyrics pulled out that made me pick the song, and then a little ficlet afterwards. Ficlets are all over the place, some fit with my other works, some don't. They're not all internally consistent with each other, but some are (everything from Black Sheep to Conversation 16 is basically one story).
> 
> Mixes are hosted on Spotify, I'm pretty sure you can listen to them through the web without needing a Spotify account, but if I'm wrong about that someone let me know and I'll figure out what to do after that.

**The Iron Queen of Moon 13**  
A soundtrack for Kinga Forrester  
[[link]](https://open.spotify.com/user/speccygeek/playlist/5RCYlbdT2D2iOvAP4qJ9YW)

 

**Imogen Heap - Magic Me**

_In crevasses of darkness, the hatred you harvest that feeds the fear_   
_Angry, angry, whatever you might lose, whatever you've gotta prove, it has nothing to do with me_   
_With all of your might and your slyness you vanish me and I disappear from view_   
_But our enemies live within so I sit pretty in the heart of you_

_Magic me_   
_You kill me, but I only get stronger_   
_Magic me_   
_Am I everything that's wrong in this world?_   
_…_   
_Send me off to space, but I'm not going away_   
_Paint me out of the picture, but I'm not going away_   
_Frame me for the blame, but I'm not going away_

***  
“I can’t believe they expelled me,” Kinga hissed, throwing another book not specifically at Max but in his general direction. He ducked and took a few steps to the right.

“I mean, you kind of had it coming this time…” This time she did throw it specifically at him, and he didn’t move fast enough to avoid taking a hardcover straight to the solar plexus. “Ow! Come on, you _blew up a lab_!”

“Big deal! My dad blew up a lab once!”

“Yeah, _after_ he’d earned his doctorate.”

“Aagh!” She threw a few more things, then stood in the middle of the room with her head hanging. “Max... am I everything that’s wrong with the world?”

“No? Of course not. Don’t be melodramatic. You’re a very small part of what’s wrong with the world.” She looked up at him with fire in her eyes, and he held up his hands defensively. “What do you want me to say, Kinga? I’m not sure how you want me to answer that question.”

“Oh, fuck it.” She tossed her head. “Fine. Screw Gizmonic. I don’t need the doctorate. This just moves our plans up by a couple of years. No one will police us on the moon.”

“So we’re running away?”

“Hell no. This is strategic. They can shove me into outer space, but I’m not going away. Gizmonic hasn’t heard the last of me, and the next time they hear from me they’ll rue the day they kicked me out.”  
***

 

**Halsey - Gasoline**

_Are you deranged like me? Are you strange like me?_   
_Lighting matches just to swallow up the flame like me?_   
_Do you call yourself a fucking hurricane like me?_   
_Pointing fingers cause you'll never take the blame like me?_

_And all the people say,_

_"You can't wake up, this is not a dream,_   
_You're part of a machine, you are not a human being,_   
_With your face all made up, living on a screen,_   
_Low on self esteem, so you run on gasoline."_

_Oh, oh, oh, oh,_   
_I think there's a flaw in my code,_   
_Oh, oh, oh, oh,_   
_These voices won't leave me alone,_

_Well my heart is gold, and my hands are cold._

***  
“When’s the last time you slept?” Max asked suspiciously. Kinga waved a hand dismissively, not noticing how much it shook as she did it.

“I don’t need sleep. I run on coffee and gasoline.”

“You’re crazy enough to try that,” he said dryly. “Seriously, Kinga, take a break. You’ve been working for days.”

“If you’re not going to help, then go away.”

“I’m trying to help, lunatic woman. Will you at least leave the work for long enough to get lunch with me?”

“Is it lunchtime?”

“Kinga… it’s 2:30 am.”

“So what are _you_ doing up?”

“Making sure you don’t blow yourself up, obviously. Please put down the beaker and let me take you to Denny’s or something. You can get more coffee… without gasoline, but it’ll have to do.”

“If you insist,” she sighed, putting the beaker back into its rack and moving the rack into cold storage. She poked him in the chest when she turned back to him. “You’re a pain in the ass, you know that?”

“You tell me that mostly right before I stop you from doing something stupid,” he said, catching her hand quickly. “God, your hands are freezing. Come on, you can always come back to the lab later.” He had no intention of letting her come back to the lab. He was pretty sure her exhaustion would catch up with her as soon as she ate something, coffee or no coffee.  
***

 

**Death Cab for Cutie - Black Sun**

_There is an answer in a question_   
_And there is hope within despair_   
_And there is beauty in a failure,_   
_And there are depths beyond compare_   
_There is a role of a lifetime_   
_And there's a song yet to be sung_   
_And there's a dumpster in the driveway_   
_Of all the plans that came undone_

_How could something so fair_   
_Be so cruel_   
_When this black sun revolved_   
_Around you_

***  
“I can’t believe it didn’t work,” Kinga said blankly, running a hand through her hair and tugging it in frustration. “What the hell is this?”

“It’s pretty,” Max said, watching the multicolored liquid pulse with light. “I like it.”

“You’re a moron,” she snapped. “This is garbage. Get rid of it.”

“But Kinga--”

“I said get rid of it.” She stormed out of the lab, slamming the door behind her, and Max sighed and picked up the flask.

“I can’t pour this down the drain,” he said to himself. “And it is _really_ pretty… maybe she won’t notice if I keep some of it.” He poured a little into a vial and capped it tightly, shaking it to watch the colors swirl without mixing into muddy brown. After a moment’s thought, he saved another vial of it. Sure, she’d been angry about botching another attempt at the liquid media fluid, but maybe after they’d figured it out he could make her a necklace or something with the lovely results of this failure.  
***

 

**Lorde - Yellow Flicker Beat**

_I dream all year, but they’re not the same kinds_   
_And the shivers move down my shoulder blades in double time_   
_And now people talk to me, I’m slipping out of reach now_   
_People talk to me, and all their faces blur_   
_But I got my fingers laced together and I made a little prison_   
_And I’m locking up everyone who ever laid a finger on me_

_This is the start of how it all ends_   
_They used to shout my name, now they whisper it_   
_I’m speeding up and this is the_   
_Red, orange, yellow flicker beat sparking up my heart_

***  
The last time she set foot on the Gizmonics campus, Kinga could hear them whispering behind her back. She pretended she couldn’t hear them, and she couldn’t hear most of what they said, but her name was on many people’s lips and she wanted to slap it clear of them. Her fists were clenched tight, fingernails digging into the soft parts of her palms, and she kept her head high and her pace steady and her eyes straight ahead of her. Don’t acknowledge the peasants, she told herself. Fuck all of them. Get your shit and get out before you burn this place to the ground. She hadn’t succeeded in burning it down even with the accidental explosion-- Gizmonic Institute was designed specifically to prevent their craziest students and faculty from absentmindedly destroying the whole place-- but god, she wanted to. She could feel the fire inside her chest raging to be let out. For a second, she allowed herself to daydream, wishing she could open her mouth and breathe fire like a dragon, to roast every gossiping jackass in her wake.

She could have sent Max to retrieve her things. Maybe she should have. She wondered if they’d whisper behind his back too, if they’d whisper her name, and what he’d do if he overheard. Probably nothing. He was, essentially, harmless. But the thought of him getting furious on her behalf at least got her to stop cutting crescents into her own hands. She flexed her fingers, then cracked her knuckles. The whispering behind her died out, and she smirked slightly. Let them call her crazy. She could deal with that. But let them fear her above all else.  
***

 

**MS MR - Painted**

_What did you think would happen..._   
_When you put me in unnatural space_   
_A cruel dark box where a shadow took my place_

_But if you never break, you'll never know_   
_It's all you need to fight a blow_   
_Now put yourself back together again_   
_Burning bridges from the inside-out_   
_One day I'll be stronger than my own doubt_   
_Stronger than my own doubt_

***  
“Oh, stop crying,” Pearl said crossly. “You’ll be fine. This is the school all the best mad scientists’ daughters go to, you’ll be in perfect company.”

“I don’t _want_ perfect company,” Kinga sniffled. “I want Daddy. And Max.”

“Daddy’s gone and Max doesn’t matter. You’re here now. Make the best of it.”

“But Grandma….”

“Ah! I don’t want to hear it. You haven’t even given it a chance. Get in there, young lady, and show the world what a Forrester is made of.” Pearl chucked Kinga under the chin and gave her a push toward the dormitory that the headmaster had pointed out. “Go on. You’ll be fine. Make me proud.”

Kinga had no idea what would make Pearl proud, as nothing her father had ever done seemed to manage that feat, but she nodded and sniffed again, tightening her hands around the straps of her backpack. “Okay, Grandma,” she said, but Pearl had already begun walking away.  
***

 

**Metric - Black Sheep**

_Got balls of steel, got an automobile for a minimum wage_   
_Got real estate, I'm buying it all up in outer space_   
_Now that the truth is just a rule that you can bend_   
_You crack the whip, shape-shift and trick the past again_

***  
“You know, if we establish a base on the moon, I’ll be the sovereign ruler of an entire planet.”

“The moon technically isn’t a planet,” Max said, and Kinga glared at him. “Well, it isn’t! It’s a satellite.”

“Then I’ll be the sovereign ruler of two satellites. The moon, and the Satellite of Love.”

“What if the test subject declares themself the sovereign of the SOL?”

“Then we’ll do what any proper dictator would do. Execute the interloper and find a new test subject.”

“That might be more trouble than it’s worth.”

“Fine… I’ll just torture them until they retract the claim. I suppose I can let them live.”

“Your malevolence knows no bounds, and your wisdom no challenge,” he said approvingly, and she smirked at him.

“That’s more like it.”  
***

 

**The Mountain Goats - Up the Wolves**

_We're going to commandeer the local airwaves_   
_To tell the neighbors what's been going on_   
_And they will shake their heads and wag their bony fingers_   
_In all the wrong directions, and by daybreak we'll be gone_

_I'm going to get myself in fighting trim_   
_Scope out every angle of unfair advantage_   
_I'm going to bribe the officials, I'm going to kill all the judges_   
_It's going to take you people years to recover from all of the damage_

***  
“How many admin staff do you think I’d have to kill before they’d cower before me and give me my degree?” Kinga asked, stirring her drink with a swizzle stick thoughtfully. Max gaped at her.

“That’s… that’s not how it works,” he said.

“Bet that’s how Dad would have done it.”

“Your dad was out of his mind.”

“Are you saying I’m not?”

“You’re not a murderer… are you?”

“Not yet, but that doesn’t mean never.” She sipped her drink placidly, hiding her smirk behind the rim of her glass at Max’s dumbfounded expression.

“Well… just don’t start with me if you decide to change that.”

“Of course not. You’re necessary.”

“Maybe you could get what you want through bribery instead of threatening lives,” he suggested, and she shrugged.

“I don’t know, threats don’t cost anything--”

“Except social standing.”

“Threats don’t cost anything,” she repeated, “and bribes do. No point in wasting money.”

“You really just love leaving smoking ruins in your wake, don’t you?”

“Of course. Don’t you?” Max shook his head slightly and reached for his drink, and Kinga laughed silently at the look on his face.  
***

 

**Modest Mouse - Spitting Venom**

_Well you were spitting venom at most everyone you know_   
_If you truly knew the gravity you'd know just where to go_   
_Well let it drop_   
_..._   
_My ears were pressed so firmly right against your mouth to hear_   
_When you tried to spit the venom out your words were not so clear_   
_Now drop_

_Hold on to what you need_   
_We've got a knack for fucked up history_   
_Hold on to what you need_   
_We've got a knack for messed up history_

***  
“I hate them,” she said, well past the bubbly stage of drunk and heading into maudlin. “Stupid old hidebound Gizmotrash micromanaging so-called administration…” Max just nodded sympathetically. She came out to get wasted, so he wasn’t going to stop her, but that meant he got to deal with increasingly slurred tirades against everyone who had ever wronged Kinga. “Like no one’s ever blown up a lab before. So a few people got hurt. Can’t make science without cracking a few nerds.”

“I think you’re dramatically understating it,” he said, and she stuck a finger in his face threateningly.

“That’s what Dad taught me and Dad knew science, okay?”

“I don’t think you want to emulate your father that closely.”

“Maybe I do. Maybe I want to… want to be the kind of scientist he’d be proud of…” She sniffled, then polished off the rest of her drink. “Maybe I just want to be weird and terrifying and make everyone scared of me and what I might do.”

“Kinga, don’t you think he’d be proud of you regardless? You don’t have to walk in his footsteps to be the kind of daughter he’d be proud of.”

“What do you know about it? You’re walking in your dad’s footsteps so closely you might as well be wearing his shoes.” Max bit his lip on a frown, and she sighed and patted his arm. “It’s not a bad thing. Your dad was--”

“My dad was the person he was, and I’m the person I am,” Max said. “And they’re not the same person.”

“Close enough for government work,” she muttered. He rolled his eyes.

“You’re _definitely_ not doing government work.”

“If I take over the world, I will be the government.”

“No, if you take over the world, you’ll be the beautiful and terrifying dictator, and you’ll foist off all the government bullshit on me, probably.”

“Ehhh…” She didn’t deny it. He shook his head.

“Want another drink?”

“You know it.”  
***

 

**The National - Conversation 16**

_I was afraid I'd eat your brains_   
_I was afraid I'd eat your brains_   
_Cause I'm evil_   
_Cause I'm evil_

_I'm a confident liar_   
_Had my head in the oven so you'd know where I'll be_   
_I'll try to be more romantic_   
_I want to believe in everything you believe_   
_But I was less than amazing_   
_Do not know what all the troubles are for_   
_Fall asleep in your branches_   
_You're the only thing I ever want anymore_

***  
Max practically poured Kinga into the car after she decided she was drunk enough to go home. Luckily, she weighed little enough that it wasn’t a trial to mostly carry her staggering body to the car, and he got her buckled in and snuck a kiss on her temple when she wasn’t likely to smack him for it. As soon as he started the car, she turned the radio off, watching him from the other side of the car with eyes that didn’t look as bleary as her alcohol consumption should have dictated.

“Max… am I a psychopath?”

“That’s a loaded question,” he said lightly, glancing at her quickly before focusing on the road. “I wouldn’t call you a psychopath.”

“A sociopath, then?”

“Mm... closer, but still no.”

“So what’s wrong with me?” she asked plaintively.

“There’s nothing wrong with you. You’re amazing.”

“I’m less than amazing.”

“That’s the alcohol talking. Sober Kinga would never say that.”

“Sober Kinga lies through her teeth,” drunk Kinga said, and Max bit back a snort of laughter. “I’m… I’m not good to you, am I.” It wasn’t a question. The laughter died as quickly as it rose.

“You’re not bad to me,” he said. “You could be a little less physically abusive, but that’s the price to be paid by any companion of a Forrester.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Tell me that when you sober up.” He patted her knee and she covered his hand with hers.

“I won’t. But I should. And I mean it.”

“I think you’re too drunk,” he said, and she sighed.

“I am too drunk. I’m too drunk to pretend.”

“What do you need to pretend?”

“Mm… pretend you don’t matter as much as you do.” His brows arched. “Pretend you don’t mean as much to me as you do.”

“You’re not going to remember saying any of this tomorrow, are you?” She shrugged, and he sighed. “Why do you have to mess with my head like this?”

“Because I’m evil,” she said. Usually when she said it, she reveled in it. Now she sounded… kind of sad about it. He sighed, and when she didn’t say anything else for a minute, he turned the radio back on. Her place wasn’t far; not even a whole song went by before he parked in front of her building.

“Let’s get you upstairs,” he said, and she was surprisingly cooperative compared to other times he’d brought her home after a night of drinking. He set her down on her bed and she pulled on his arm. “Do you need anything before I go?”

“I need you not to go.”

“Excuse me?” He blinked. She pulled on his arm again.

“Don’t go. Don’t leave me here alone.” He bit his lip, and she gave him a plaintive look. “I won’t do anything inappropriate. I just… kinda want you to hold me.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re only saying this because you’re drunk.”

“I’m honest when I’m drunk.” He hesitated again, and she sighed and flopped back against the bed. “No. Fine. Leave. I’ll be fine.”

“I’m not leaving,” he said, and knelt down to unlace her shoes and take them off her feet. “If you want me to stay, I’ll stay.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.” He nudged her legs up onto the bed, then kicked off his own shoes. “Scooch over if you’re serious.” She moved over on the bed and curled into him as soon as he laid down. He wrapped his arms around her and tried not to sigh too heavily. Finally, he was getting something he’d been dreaming of… but with that particularly cruel Forrester twist to it, even still. She murmured something he didn’t quite catch, buried her face in his shoulder, and fell asleep almost instantly.  
***

 

**Matchbox 20 - 3 AM**

_She's got a little bit of something, god it's better than nothing_   
_And in her color portrait world she believes that she's got it all_   
_She swears the moon don't hang quite as high as it used to_   
_And she only sleeps when it's raining_   
_And she screams, and her voice is straining_

***  
She wandered the halls of Moon 13 like a wraith when she couldn’t sleep, barefoot and with her hair unbound, trying to wear herself out to the point where she could sleep untroubled. It never worked-- her sleep was always troubled-- but she let herself believe it helped, all evidence to the contrary aside. Everything was silent this late at night, the Boneheads all in deep freeze, Max and Synthia long asleep, Kinga the only one aware of what was going on, little as there was of that.

She headed back to her bedroom to grab her tablet and passed a barely-awake Max walking back from the bathroom. He blinked at her a couple of times. “Why are you awake?”

“I can’t sleep,” she said, and he studied her for a moment, tired-eyed and thoughtful.

“You think too much.” She snorted and crossed her arms, and he tugged on the sleeve of her bathrobe. “Come with me.”

“Why?”

“Just trust me,” he sighed, and she followed him down the hall to his room. “Wait here a second.” She peeked into his room from the doorway, but he didn’t turn on a light, so she couldn’t see much. He came back to her with a small box in his hands.

“What’s this, a bluetooth speaker?”

“No. It’s a white noise machine. See, it’s got different settings…” He turned a dial on the back of it to demonstrate: static, ocean waves, rain, cat purr. “Maybe it’ll help you sleep.”

“Don’t you need it?”

“You need it more than I do,” he said, placing it in her hands. “Go try it out.”

“I will,” she said. Five minutes later, she tucked herself into bed, not expecting it to help but willing to try. She set it to rain mode and laid back, closing her eyes, breathing deeply.

She was out like a light a minute later.  
***

 

**Lorde - Still Sane**

_I'm little, but I'm coming for the crown_   
_I'm little, but I’m coming for you_   
_I'm little but I’m coming for the title, held by everyone who’s up_

_All work and no play_   
_Never made me lose it_   
_All business all day_   
_Keeps me up a level_   
_All work and no play_   
_Keeps me on the new shit, yeah_

_All work and no play_   
_Let me count the bruises_   
_All business all day_   
_Keeps me up a level_   
_All work and no play_   
_Lonely on the new shit, yeah, yeah_

_Only bad people live to see their likeness set in stone_   
_Only bad people live to see their likeness set in stone_   
_What does that make me?_

***  
“I have something to show you,” Max said, and Kinga glanced over from her computer. “Not here. You have to come with me.”

“Do I really have to, though,” she said, and he sighed.

“You’ll be impressed,” he said.

“Will I really, though.”

“Oh, for-- what are you doing that’s so important right now?”

“Figuring out how Big Bird managed to hack the Kingachrome to get that text crawl.”

“Okay, that’s important but not time sensitive. We’ve got days until the next experiment. Please come with me?” She rolled her eyes and stood up.

“Where are we going?”

“Outside for a second.”

“Are you trying to murder me?”

“What?! No.” Max shook his head. “In the rover, obviously. Come on, it’ll only take like ten minutes and I think you’ll like it.”

“You’ve thought that before and been grievously wrong,” she said, and he rolled his eyes.

“Sometimes I’ve been right. Look, if you don’t want to, you don’t have to right now. It’s not time sensitive either. I just thought it might cheer you up.”

“Oh god. We might as well get it over with.” She kept her arms folded as he drove the rover off the moon base and up to the edge of a crater, then brought it to a stop. She gave him an impatient look, and he pointed down into the crater, to the other side of the thirty-foot crater wall-- where there was a not completely inept carving of her in the bone-white moon rock. “What is _that_?” she asked, trying to sound stern when she really wanted to laugh.

“It’s the moon version of Mount Rushmore,” he said. “But you’re the only leader it’s had, or needs, so… there you go. Immortalized for aliens to find long after human civilization is dust.”

“You’re such a dork,” she said, but she smiled at him, and he beamed at her approval.  
***

 

**Dresden Dolls - Gravity**

_Gravity works slowly if you notice it at all_   
_Some of us are getting mighty lucky (aren’t we?)_   
_If you had to live with this you'd rather lie than fall_   
_You think I can't fly, well you just watch me_

_Now_   
_Necks are cracking sideways_   
_Hit me from the back side_   
_I am on the thin side_   
_You are on the fat side_   
_Cut a piece that’s bite size_   
_Shoot me from my bad side_   
_If you got a straight line_   
_This would be a good time_

_The sky is always falling down on me_   
_So officer forgive me please!_

***  
“If we’re going to be on the moon you have to figure out the gravity thing,” Max said, and Kinga frowned.

“It has gravity.”

“Not enough of it.”

“Wouldn’t you enjoy weighing sixteen percent of earth weight?”

“Maybe for a day, but not indefinitely! I’m serious, we’d have all kinds of health problems if we lived at that gravity for too long.”

“Spoilsport. I could practically fly on the moon.”

“You’d bounce off and I’d never see you again,” he teased, and she laughed.

“Leaving you as king of the moon. Not a bad racket.”

“Oh, no. I don’t want to be there if you aren’t with me.”

“Fine, I’ll figure the gravity thing out.”  
***

 

**Metric - Help I’m Alive**

_If you're still alive_  
_My regrets are few_  
 _If my life is mine_  
 _What shouldn't I do?_  
 _I get wherever I'm going_  
 _I get whatever I need_  
 _While my blood's still flowing_  
 _And my heart's still_  
 _Beating like a hammer_  
 _Beating like a hammer_

_Help I'm alive  
My heart keeps beating like a hammer_

***  
“Max? Max!” He came to, head throbbing and vision blurry, looking up at her kneeling over him, and she pressed a hand to her heart and gasped. “Oh, fuck, I thought I killed you.”

“N-not this time,” he breathed, trying to lift his head but letting it fall back against the floor a second later. “What the hell did you do?”

“I didn’t ground the circuit,” she said. “You weren’t supposed to touch it, idiot!”

“I’m the idiot,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Right.” She hit his shoulder, then put a hand on his cheek.

“You’re clammy…”

“Stop calling me names,” he said weakly, but turned into her hand. “I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine, you just took 120 volts for a solid five seconds. Shut up and let me check you.” She pressed two fingers into his neck and closed her eyes while she counted his pulse, shaking her head slightly. “Your heartbeat seems okay. I’m fucked up, though. My heart’s beating like a hammer.”

“I didn’t know you cared,” he said, and she scowled at him.

“You’re still being an idiot.”

“I almost died, I can get away with it for now.”

“This time,” she said, and lifted his hand to press it over her heart. “There. See?” His eyes widened, and she couldn’t help smiling at his look of wonder. “I do care. My heart rate can’t lie.”

“Now I just have to figure out how to get you to admit it without practically killing myself.”  
***


End file.
